RE-INVENTING YOUR LIFE – Rev Francis Waive

The General Overseer and senior Pastor of Church of the Anointing message on the current edition of the church news letter ‘Fresh Oil’Rev Francis Waive shared – Re-Inventing Your Life. He took his text from Luke 15:11-32.

The story of the ‘prodigal son’ was one of the first biblical passages that made a deep impression upon my spirit after my salvation in October 1977. Since my response to God’s call to ministry June 13th 1982, I have preached from this bible passage several times. Once I did a series on the each of the sons and then on the father. But reading this passage again recently made a new impact upon me. I pray it does the same for you as you read this.

Permit me to begin with some questions. Is your life at a standstill right now? Are you satisfied with where you are today? Can it be better? As I read the story of the prodigal recently, I felt these were questions that came to his mind twice during the account. At the first, this led him to leave home and at the second, it brought it back home. It is a beautiful account.

I believe that God wants to move you from the familiar to the fantastic! He certainly has more for you than you are currently enjoying. I charge you not to wait for a miraculous sudden shaking event to shape your future. I pray that the Holy Spirit will help you to sense the moment and seize it to move forward. Yes, you have to act. You have to do something.

Decisions that we make in life shape our destiny. Decisions like who to marry, going back to school, starting a new business, learning a trade, building a house, seeking a job, starting a farm, etc. You can’t see far if you don’t hear well. I pray that you will hear well as you read this because God is already speaking to you. You may have to read this message again and again. The first step is for you to take a decision as you sense the direction you want your life to go. Next you act on that decision. You don’t just sit down and wait for nothing when life is waiting for you!

I am aware that the fear of the unknown and fear of failure will threaten you. But like the prodigal, you must be ready to take the risk. You will experience resistance from those around you but you must forge ahead if you are to achieve your prophetic destiny. Never let your life end up with regret of what you could have being if you had tried!

Let me ask you another set of questions. Is what you are doing right now for a living contributing to the achievement of your divine purpose? In other words, are you moving in the direction of where you want to go in life? You can’t be on the plane going to Australia whereas you plan to be in New York! My host asked me to take a number of buses to arrive at his place when I first started going to London many years ago. From Heathrow airport to Victoria Bus Station was not a problem. But at the next stop where I was to take bus 63, I didn’t realize that where I will end up depends on the side of the road where I boarded the bus. You are going north or south, east or west! It is your move!

Luke chapter fifteen contains three similar stories. The lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son (which we call the prodigal), are all parallels until we look deeper. Let me ask you, who is responsible for the lost state of the three examples? I believe that the coin was not responsible hence the owner had to do the searching. The lost sheep too was only a sheep and simply followed other ship that he saw. But the lost son took a decision and he was therefore responsible to take the next decision to change his life. And it was a bold move. Whoever thinks that it was a simple act to go back home to a father that you have wasted has not faced situations in life. It takes courage to succeed in life.

It is this courage that many of us do not bring into life. There could be people that we need to apologize to in order to move forward in life. But stupid pride will not allow us to do so. There is wisdom in stooping to conquer! This young man swallowed his pride and went back to his father. He could have remained with the swine and perished with hunger when his father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare! But the bible says that he came to his senses. I pray the same thing happen to you. Many of us believe and live a lie! Lies about where we are in life and how we got there.

Let me again ask you a few more questions. Where are you in life right now? Is this the best that God has for you? How did you get to where you are now? Where have you been in life? Who have you been with? Where do you want to be? The prodigal told himself the truth regarding his life. He could have continued in illusions and fairy tales like the village drunk. He knew where he missed it!

He was impatient ….. Hence he asked ahead of time for his inheritance. He was impetus ….. Hence he wasted all that he had. He was imprudent ……. Hence he spent everything. Are you and I not guilty of these? We live to impress others but not ourselves or God. We spend above our means and end up in debt! To re-build our lives, we must re-trace our steps and take concrete actions that will appear to re-invent us to those around us.